Union Election Delayed Uaw Sees Intimidation At Montco Geriatric Unit

March 12, 1986|by DAN FRICKER, The Morning Call

A union election scheduled for today at the Montgomery County Geriatric Center has been postponed by the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board after the United Auto Workers alleged that the county tried to intimidate the center's 487 non-professional workers.

The unfair labor practices complaint filed Monday by District 65 of the UAW in Vineland, N.J., alleges that the county threatened to install time clocks and eliminate benefits and perquisites if workers vote for union representation, PLRB Counsel James L. Crawford said.

But Paul B. Bartle, chairman of the county commissioners, dismissed the complaint as an attempt by the UAW to avert an election loss in a county where unions have enjoyed little success among public employees.

"It's a very clear feeling up at the Geriatric Center that people were going to vote the union down," Bartle said. "It's an attempt to delay the election."

A hearing on the complaint will probably be held within two weeks in Montgomery County. The hearing examiner normally issues a ruling within three weeks of the hearing's conclusion, Crawford said.

If the examiner rules that the complaint is meritless, the election will be rescheduled. If the examiner sustains the complaint, "it becomes a little more uncertain as to when the election will be rescheduled," Crawford said.

The election date had been set in an agreement signed Jan. 29 by the county, the union and the PLRB. It arose from a PLRB order to the county last August to permit a union election at the center in Royersford.

The UAW complaint alleges that Jean Johns, a center administrator, threatened workers during a meeting Feb. 5 to install time clocks and eliminate free lunches, bus transportation and increases in Blue Cross and Blue Shield benefits if they voted for unionization.

In addition, Johns allegedly told the workers that they would lose existing benefits and would be forced to renegotiate them and that they would be paid for 7 1/2 hours instead of 8 hours daily, Crawford said.

The complaint further states that the county hired 25 to 30 new workers during November and December in an effort to stack the election and remove the union's claim that the center was understaffed; made it easier for workers to get three-day weekends and selectively enforced a no-solicitation rule in order to discourage union recruiting.

Bartle denied the allegations, saying the county conducted a fair campaign during the past five weeks. "My reaction is that we will defend those charges, which we we feel are unfounded," he said.

During the campaign, Bartle visited the center twice to talk to workers and sent them three letters in which he urged them to vote against the UAW.

Bartle also criticized the PLRB's decision to postpone the election, saying it should go ahead and the ballots be impounded until after the hearing. "It's extremely unfair," Bartle said. "I don't know how thePennsylvania Labor Relations Board could do this even in its wildest dreams."

Center workers petitioned for a union election three or four years ago. But it was delayed after the UAW filed an unfair labor practices complaint seeking to have nine workers reinstated that the union contended were fired for organizing.

The complaint was settled out of court in August when the county's only recourse was an appeal to the state Supreme Court. The settlement led to the PLRB election order.